The last group targeted in an ongoing, anti-conservative campaign within the Internal Revenue Service has received an official apology, bringing the saga that once starred Lois Lerner and other high-profile Obama Administration officials, to a close.
Pro-Israel non-profit group Z Street was swept up in the IRS dragnet that delayed or denied 501(c)(3) tax exempt status to hundreds of Tea Party, conservative, or conservative-sounding organizations while Obama officials searched for a “dark money” connection between the groups, and tried to force organizations to disclose major conservative donors.
Z Street applied for non-profit status in 2009, a review process that typically takes around six months. The group waited a shocking seven years for the IRS to handle their application. Around a year into the application process, Z Street’s executives asked the IRS what the problem was, only to learn that they’d been targeted for “heightened scrutiny” because officials were concerned that Z Street’s “policy positions conflicted with those of the Obama administration.”
Specifically, officials wanted to know whether Z Street was “funding terror” — a concern that’s not typically within the purview of the Internal Revenue Service.
Now Government Executive reports that Z Street, the last remaining group of 427 organizations suing the IRS, has received its settlement and been issued a personal apology from Acting Internal Revenue Commissioner David Kautter. The apology is mostly complete, though it does mention that no court has yet found the IRS actually guilty of any kind of discrimination.
Z Street’s settlement follows two other “substantial” settlements, inked back in October.